SideShift · creator job board for students
Visit 25 college campuses in person to sign up the first users
First 10-20K users; strong word of mouth among college students
Workedin-personpositioning-nicheword-of-mouth
What they did
Before the organic UGC push, SideShift went in person to 25 college campuses to onboard its first 10-20K job seekers, alongside posting on its own social channels. It deliberately built supply around college students (hungry, eager for experience, low expectations) rather than influencers with big followings, and frames the gig as a path to strategist and growth roles.
What happened
Onboarded the first 10-20K users; Canyon credits it with strong word of mouth inside colleges and a Gen Z marketplace identity that gets brands better results.
- Stage
- Launch (cold start)
- Effort
- 25 campuses
“we physically went to 25 different college campuses in person to onboard kind of that first 10 to 20,000 users, and I think because of that like we've gotten really strong word-of-mouth and growth within college.”
“previously to that, we had been, you know, doing just marketing on our own social channels, physically going in person to these college campuses”
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from SideShift
All 12 SideShift tactics- Tie videos to job-market anger: 'I have a master's and can't find a job'Talking-head version got 9.6M views; 6-7 of ~15 early videos hit 150-300K
- Train your own creators with a 6-hour course on making app videosCreators earn ~$10-15K after 1-2 months; early quality complaints
- Once a video format wins, put 90% of creators on it and keep 10% testingWorks well for them; keeps a backup format ready if the winner saturates
- Run organic videos with 5%+ engagement as Meta ads, starting at $100 a dayGreat results at $100/day, then scaled up; no numbers given
- Manage all creators in one group chat and share what's workingKeeps creators bought in; one-on-one management called very hard
- Build a warm-up video format from real posts about job-hunt painStill used a year later; warms accounts well but converts poorly
More from this episode
- SideShift: Have 5 creators post twice a day on new TikTok accounts; copy the first hit10K to 150K+ users in 3-4 months on ~$10K; 16-20M views in one campaign
- SideShift: Post about the tough job market and slip the app in at the endWinning format; videos at 84K to a few hundred thousand views
- SideShift: Have creators reply to comments and name the app when people askGuest says comment plugs convert to real users; no numbers
- SideShift: Tell student creators the gig can grow into a strategist or growth roleGuest says it drives stronger results for brands; no numbers
- Give creators a short brief with a Loom, target persona and proven videosSeen across SideShift customers; long briefs get skipped
- Pay creators a base retainer, $15-20 per video, and big view bonusesCommon rate across SideShift; bonuses get creators working the comments
- Warm up each new TikTok account for 3-5 days, acting like your target user
- Test an app idea with a few creators for 2 weeks before doubling downSeen across studios; two weak 2-week rounds mean rethink the product
- Photogenic: Hire one creator who already went viral on her own TikTok35M views on 46 posts; weekly downloads up 10x
- Photogenic: Let the creator decide what to post instead of sending her ideasFounder's ideas performed terribly; hers drove 35M views
- Photogenic: Post the AI's funniest mistakes, like a photo with a third legDrove heavy engagement; part of a 35M-view run
- Vert Ventures: Turn the organic TikToks that already worked into paid adsBoth apps in and out of their category's top five for weeks